+First of all, the OpenCongress project is a PostgreSQL only project. Don't have delusions of using MySQL with it or you will be hurtin. Since I personally had little experience with Postgres before this, I will include some tips for all you Mysql only guys and gals out there.

+

+Here is what you have to do to get OpenCongress close to working on your personal machine :

+

+ 1. install postgresql

+

+ 2. install tsearch in contrib

+

+ 3. gem install ferret, bluecloth, simple-rss, postgres-pr

+

+ 4. copy config/database.sample to config/database.yml and edit it

+

+ 5. create the databases

+ createdb opencongress_dev

+ opencongress_dev < db/tsearch2.sql

+ createdb opencongress_test

+

+ 6. rake migrate

+

+--

+

+Next, you will have to get the data from govtrack and fill in your database with the parsed govtrack data

+

+ mkdir /data/govtrack/109

+ cd /data/govtrack/109

+ rsync -az govtrack.us::govtrackdata/us/109/bills .

+ rsync -az govtrack.us::govtrackdata/us/109/repstats .

+ rsync -az govtrack.us::govtrackdata/us/109/bills.index.xml .

+ rsync -az govtrack.us::govtrackdata/us/109/committeeschedule.xml .

+ rsync -az govtrack.us::govtrackdata/us/109/rolls .

+

+Now, you will have to actually parse the data

+

+ ruby bin/govtrack_parse_people.rb

+ ruby bin/govtrack_parse_bills.rb

+ ruby bin/govtrack_parse_committees.rb

+ ruby bin/govtrack_parse_committee_schedules.rb

+ ruby parse_individual_bills.rb

+

+--

+

+Now, just run 'mongrel_rails start' and you should have something going on localhost:3000 - have fun!

+

+Lastly, some Postgres tips:

+

+ starting pg: pg_ctl -D data -l logfile start

+ accessing pg from the command line : psql opencongress_dev

+

Show notes

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Rakefile

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@

+# Add your own tasks in files placed in lib/tasks ending in .rake,

+# for example lib/tasks/capistrano.rake, and they will automatically be available to Rake.